Ray McNulty: Michael Thompson is steady as he goes

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Michael Thompson chips his way from a bunker onto the 16th green Saturday on the PGA National Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens during the third round of The Honda Classic. Thompson finessed with a 70 for the day.

PALM BEACH GARDENS - It was a shame, really, that as Michael Thompson methodically worked his way around the treacherous Champion Course on an unseasonably chilly, wind-swept Sunday at PGA National, Rory McIlroy remained the story of this Honda Classic.

But, sadly, that's the celebrity-crazed culture in which we now live.

The little-known guy who was on his way to winning the tournament didn't much matter. The famous guy who quit did.

So while the unheralded Thompson was making six consecutive, back-nine pars to preserve the lead he opened up on the front side, stubbornly refusing to wilt under the pressure of closing out his first PGA Tour triumph in 61 starts, NBC's Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller were asking Jack Nicklaus about McIlroy.

"He shouldn't have walked off the golf course," Nicklaus said, referring to McIlroy's sudden and stunning withdrawal in the middle of Friday's second round. "That was unfortunate."

More unfortunate, though, was the lack of excitement about what was happening on the course in the final round.

True, there was little real drama unfolding as Thompson, the runner-up at last year's U.S. Open at Olympic, held at least a two-shot lead for most of the afternoon and was up by four strokes with three holes to play.

But on this course?

In this weather?

"Whoever wins it coming down the stretch here today," 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said, after his ninth-place showing, "will hit some shots really under the gun."

In fact, Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, was a 72nd-hole eagle away from forcing a playoff, but the best he could muster was a birdie.

Not that it mattered: Thompson, too, birdied the final hole after hitting a splendid, seeing-eye sand shot to set up what amounted to a ceremonial, 2-foot tap-in for the trophy.

Of course, America didn't see the presentation because NBC, after grabbing a quick and obligatory sound bite from Thompson, left skid marks as it sped away from a telecast that lacked a marquee presence.

McIlroy, the world's

No. 1-ranked player, wasn't there.

Tiger Woods, the world's No. 2-ranked

player, wasn't a factor.

"It's really hard to shoot a low number out here today, even a good one," Woods said after following three consecutive even-par rounds with a Sunday 74 to finish tied for 37th place, 13 strokes behind Thompson. "You can certainly shoot 1-, 2-, 3-under par for sure, but anything lower than that is going to be really, really tough."

And it was.

Only five players carded under-par rounds. Only seven shot even-par. Three shot in the 80s.

So, as has often been the case on this U.S. Open-style course, par proved to be a good score. But it wasn't good enough to catch Thompson, the 27-year-old who joined Y.E. Yang (2009), Mark Wilson (2007), Padraig Harrington (2005), Todd Hamilton (2004) and Matt Kuchar (2002) as players who earned their first Tour victories at the Honda Classic since 2000.

Thompson began the round tied for the lead with Tour rookie Luke Guthrie at 8-under, but he jumped in front when Guthrie bogeyed No. 2 and Thompson eagled No. 3.

From there, Thompson spent the rest of the round atop the leaderboard — alone — as Guthrie faded, Ogilvy fell short and no one else could find enough birdies to make a run.

"I've never felt so good on the golf course while in contention as I did today," said Thompson, who earned $1.08 million for his week's work. "I just felt real calm, real smooth. I was hitting the ball so well. … It was just awesome."

Unexpected, too.

This was Thompson's first top-10 finish in five starts this year and only the sixth of his career. He missed the cut in three of his four previous 2013 tournaments. He arrived in South Florida with all of one FedEx Cup point, his reward for a last-place showing Torrey Pines in January.

By winning here, Thompson jumps from 197th to 11th in the FedEx Cup standings and climbs from 112th to 45th in the world golf rankings.

"There's a lot of golf courses on Tour that it might be easy to close out a golf tournament — or easier — but this is not one of them," Ogilvy said. "This is probably one of the hardest."

But Thompson stood up to the challenge.

"I'm not a flashy player," Thompson said. "I'm not dramatic or anything like that. I just kind of plod along, make my pars, eliminate the big mistakes and make a few birdies here and there."

It wasn't especially exciting to watch, which is why much of the crowd didn't stay around for the end, but it was effective.

And if it had been McIlroy or Woods making those pars …

"Everybody wants to see the marquee players, the guys who are exciting or wear bright clothes and all that," Thompson said. "I've always lived by the motto: I'm going to let my clubs do the talking. If my clubs talk — and they're saying a lot of good stuff — then good things are going to happen to me."